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Long credited with 10% in the polls, Éric Zemmour ended Sunday evening in fourth place in the first round of the French presidential election with 7% of the vote. A great disappointment for the far-right candidate who dreamed of beating Marine Le Pen. Back to this electoral setback.
The hidden vote ultimately did not exist. Long credited with some 10% of voting intentions in the polls and presented for a time as the possible third man, Éric Zemmour finally came fourth in the first round of the French presidential election with 7 % voices. Far behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third position. And very far behind Emmanuel Macron, whom he once dreamed of facing in the ring in the second round.
Political comet, random UFO of a single election? Éric Zemmour replies to his detractors that he is not done with politics. “I won’t stop there. The flags raised at the Trocadero will not lower, he hammered on April 10, when the results came out. We are the only ones to defend our civilization and our identity […]. There is something bigger than us, France.” The disappointment is there, however. The cantor of the “great replacement” replaced by his voters in favor of his opponent Marine Le Pen. the “housewife over fifty” just good “to pet her cats” is reduced to call on his constituents to vote for hime.
The instrumentalization of the hidden vote
How to explain such a collapse? First, there was not the famous hidden vote on which the candidate was counting. The former editorialist assured, in fact, that the pollsters underestimated the voting intentions in his favor because of the unprecedented nature of his candidacy. And also because of the reluctance that voters would have to admit to pollsters that they would vote for him. “It turns out that Éric Zemmour was correctly assessed by the pollsters. The discourse on a possible hidden vote is an instrumentalization capable of demonstrating that there will be an electoral tidal wave to artificially maintain a dynamic” , explains Olivier Rouquan, political scientist, to France 24.
Credited at the height of his campaign with 13 and 14% of voting intentions in the polls, the apostle of national identity saw his sovereignist refrain swept away by the arrival of the war in Ukraine and the question of the power of purchase in the news. His voting intentions then only fell. “When he started to drop in the polls, the far-right voters who once supported him could see that Marine Le Pen’s candidacy was stronger and came back to her, ensuring a useful vote for the president. ‘far right because they are voters who want to win,’ continues the teacher-researcher in political science and associate researcher at Cersa (Center for Studies and Research in Administrative and Political Sciences).
Many political faults and a negative image
He also made mistakes with serious consequences. Lack of clarity on the Ukrainian file, historical untruths, in particular on Vichy’s role in World War IIcontroversy launched on the anniversary November 2015 attacks, finger of honor to an opponent during a trip to Marseille, gun pointed at journalists during the Milipol fair… Political faults – and communication – marked out his campaign, and the candidate failed to reassure . Worse, “he suffers from a very bad image as a man who is too radical, he is worrying for public opinion, according to Olivier Rouquan. And then he does not have the stature of a statesman. Finally, he is incapable of broadening its ideas to enlarge its electorate”.
Thanks to you, nothing will ever be the same again. Keep the faith. Your vote is a vote for the future, a vote of hope: because the truths that we have told France will be binding on everyone in the years to come.#ThanksZemmourpic.twitter.com/3QjJAji0VI
— Eric Zemmour (@ZemmourEric) April 10, 2022
Whoever greeted those voters who carried out “a pioneering vote, a vote for the future, a vote of hope” still wants to believe that his Reconquest! is possible. Eyes riveted on the third round, the legislative elections in sight, the former polemicist wants to believe it. On social networks, party executives are calling on legislative candidates to join the ranks. It remains to be seen “if its 100,000 members are activists invested in the field or ephemeral sympathizers”, wonders Olivier Rouquan. It is now up to the party to show its ability to find credible candidates and create a solid network established locally. It’s not the easiest. Marine Le Pen has been working on it with difficulty for years”.